Blizzard is Considering Options for Druid - More Information this Week
Hearthstone's Game Director, Ben Brode, tweeted this afternoon that we'd be seeing information from Blizzard this week on the problematic Druid class. Stay tuned! To the ground with you!
Quote from Ben BrodeThanks for the feedback regarding Druid. We've been considering options and should have more to share this week.
Nourish is far from being a problem. It was a mediocre to bad card for years, it was played only on meme ramp druids and not always. It's good just recently with Jade Druid and the high benefit of cycling more cards.
You just need to change Jade Idol to stop infinite cycling. By doing this more control decks will have a good chance against jade druids. There's no need for any other nerf.
Infinite cycling is a bit of a problem, but even with Giest, Jade Druid can still beat control, because the key issue isn't infinite cycling: it's the baseline power of ramp.
Nourish has been a staple in one of the two ur-archetypes of Druid (fast vs ramp) since the Ancient of Lore nerf and the introduction of Fandral Staghelm, and before then there were some folks who ran it and Ancient Healbot instead of AoL. Certainly it was in all the Yogg and Maly druids which were popular before Jades arrived. Maybe I'm wrong, and once Fandral rotates, Nourish will become weak. I doubt it, though. Nourish wasn't needed in the old pre-nerf Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo druids, so I think that obscured it's power.
Ultimate Infestation was a little underrated in pre-release reviews, because that 10 mana seems daunting. Folks were underestimating exactly how much ramp druids would put into their decks (some run all four of Wild Growth, Nourish, Jade Blossom, and Mire Keeper, regardless if they have a larger Jade presence). However, there's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation here. Is Ultimate Infestation what enables druids to play all the ramp, or is all the ramp what enables druids to play UI. I think some of both. Mire Keeper and Jade Blossom both leave at the next standard rotation. After that happens, depending on how much new ramp is added, Ultimate Infestation could die down some.
It isn't just that the total mass of ramp effects should be lower, but that it should be a bit different. Cards like Darnassus Aspirant have counterplay. Lunar Visions would require a deck to be built in a particular way. But more broadly, the way Noruish can provide either ramp and card advantage is kind of a problem long term, since Druid will always need both. The whole premise of ramp is that you sacrifice card advantage now for mana later, and having Nourish which can just refill your hand if you don't need mana undercuts that tradeoff.
I can't upvote the main reply again. I wish I could. These are the changes Druids can use. Moving Nourish is something I never even thought of, while completely forgetting of Lunar Visions. Good ideas all around.
Fixed.
Bad, dies to BGH.. Kappa
But then it's not balanced. It should draw 7 cards, too./s
That's how nerf Druid... call them Hunter, give them hunter's card pool, done.
Innervate pls thks
Nerf swipe ahhahahah
You know nothing ben brode.
jade druid not gonna get nerfed because they already put a card to counter jades. almost every single jade concede after they Skulking Geist so i think they will do something about agroo druid
This guy right here only played like 3 games of hearthstone. Geist doesn't do anything vs jade druid.
I hope they alter UI/certain Jade cards rather than the evergeen druid cards. Ramping has never been an issue until it was combined with the Jade mechanic.
These people complaining about druid are the same people who probably played OG quest rogue. git gud
I don't agree with the UI nerf. I have a feeling the major problem is Spreading Plague since it is solving the only counter to Jade Druid which is Aggro.
My guess is Blizzard will keep their "cast this again" mechanic and either Increase the cost of spreading plague or more likely remove the taunt from the 1/5 scarabs.
you people know if they do Nerf druid they are gonna have to add another card to counter-act this Nerf. like warlock was shit in un-goro now look at the class. its REALLY good now. it you want to beat druid STOP PLAYING DECKS THAT GO OFF AT TURN 7-8 you are going to lose. make sure you build a deck that can beat most classes. if it cant beat druid , so be it move on to the next match. if you are facing druid after druid after druid than build a deck that can counter act the class or don't and just try beating the class at a normal game of hearthstone
what i am saying is. stop playing slow decks that go off turn 7-8. i play in wild and jade druid is like a rare breed there . barley shows up and if it does show up it loses 90% of the time
Imho they should change Innervate to "Refresh 2 mana crystals"; remove drawing cards from Ultimate Infestation and reduce its cost to 8 or 9 (Druid has already Nourish to refill his hand); change Jade Idol making it shuffles 3 copy of "1 mana - summon a X/X Jade Golem" in order to remove its infinite value without killing the Jade potential.
A bit too harsh of a nerf IMO. Ultimate Infestation's Draw is the only reason why Druid is doing fantastic right now. None of the other cards are at fault here. Jade Idol is fine. Skulking Geist will be good if UI is removed from the game. We've been able to fight Jade Druid for months now, just counter it. Innervate should become 2 mana, "Gain 4 mana crystals this turn." to keep the theme of Druid the same, enabling bigger plays before they should happen. That's the point of Druid. This change prevents Innervate from being played after a 9 cost or 10 cost card and prevents turn 1 -> 3 drop. But still keeps the concept of the class intact.
Ultimate Infestation's armor and minion are irrelevant versus the value gained from the 5 damage and 5 card draw. Fully removing the draw will hurt Druid a lot, making UI undesireable (I'd rather run Bloodmage Thalnos at that point...) and enabling other decks to claim the Complain Throne, but destroying Druid until another expansion. I would love it if they just moved some numbers around. It feels cool saying "Do 5 then 5 then 5 then 5" so either each number decreases to 3 or 4 OR we submit this change:
This will not completely destroy the draw Druid sees from its class cards, while still drawing as much as Nourish instead of Sprint+1. This will keep the draw for Druid so it can at least re-establish a set up after using Nourish for mana, it will lower the damage so it can't control 5 health minions as successfully, it will keep the 5/5 because everyone is fine with that, and it'll slightly improve the armor gain to keep the "ULTIMATE" status of the card: "3 then 4 then 5 then 6"
This actually is a very decent suggestion, both for Innervate and UI.
Still too strong. You combined Nourish and Firelands Portal with one less damage but 6 heal into one card. How about UI costing 10, no card draw but dealing 7 damage, summoning 7/7 minion and healing the hero for 7.